I've had 2 Squier Special 5's. Never could warm up to the necks. Sound was MEH. No complaints about fit and finish. They were OK $125 "trunk basses". Not something I'd invest in upgrades. Now have a Squier Protone 5, and like it MUCHO better. They are a bit rare though. Never played a BBN5, but given the 2 choices, I'd go that way. Yammy makes a very nice bass for the $.

Just picked up a BBN5 from guitar centre in Buffalo. Probably the best bang for the buck I've ever gotten from a bass. Sets up like a dream play and feels great. Likely can't be beat for anything else you would get in this price range. I'm likely going to get a second one and experiment with pickups, control set, bridge, etc. Do it!!!

I picked up the BBN5 on Wednesday. The store set it up nicely for me, and it came with the original hardshell Yamaha case! I forgot how big the necks on these are. It also has full 19mm spacing at the bridge too. I might add a preamp, but I might just leave the stock pickups alone. All in all, it is a good deal. I will post pics when the iPad/iPhone capability is restored.

My brother taught me to play the bass and he got started on the Rbx350 I still got (even if with restored electronics, Emghz pickups, Hipshot Gb7
bass extender and Fender flats on it): in '95 I presented him the then brand new Yamaha Bbn5 and he in turn presented me his former Rbx350 so that I could start playin' the bass myself.

I also borrowed his Bbn5 many times in the past, before switchin' to fullstep downtunin': it's the Nathan East design, not the more common Michael
Anthony/Tony Kanal one so, while keepin' a somewhat Precision/StingRay/L2500 body design (alder body) it sounds like a Jazz bass on many count

There's no comparison with Squier Precision special V

The only honest comparison with Yamaha Bbn5 would be with present Squier active deluxe Jazz V: bridge is the same (infact Squier active deluxe Jazz V has a giant 2" nut) and although a full three band active eq, even pickups sound mostly the same between the two

No, my advice is to jump on the Yammy and forget the Precision special V
You definitely won't be disappointed!

I've had 2 Squier Special 5's. Never could warm up to the necks. Sound was MEH. No complaints about fit and finish. They were OK $125 "trunk basses". Not something I'd invest in upgrades. Now have a Squier Protone 5, and like it MUCHO better. They are a bit rare though. Never played a BBN5, but given the 2 choices, I'd go that way. Yammy makes a very nice bass for the $.

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I've also seen old Squier 'Precision' 5 strings that have two Jazz pickups. Not the Protone series I don't think as they had chunkier pickups, from memory?

I am unsure what causes a better B string (for the same scale length). It's a length of wire between two witness points so assuming everything else works what affects it other than wood resonances (should be the same as the E, pretty much, if you fret on the 5th fret of the B) or the electronics...

I have owned a number of budget J/J Yamaha fives. The thing they all have in common is a very heavy midrange oriented one that sounds more like two soap bars close the bridge rather than two single coils. I remember installing Sadowsky stacked humbuckers on a BB405, and midrange got even more intense. The only exception to this I have seen is a YouTube clip of a guy who put an Aguilar OB-3 preamp and Seymour Duncans (I think,) and the bass gets a classic active Jazz tone.